Auckland, New Zealand

Well, here I am in the largest city in New Zealand. It seems to me that the growth of Auckland to a city of over a million people took the Kiwis somewhat by surprise. The traffic is shocking, there's no public transport system to speak of, and, despite there being 4 Starbucks within spitting distance of one another on the main street the air of "metropolis" just doesn't seem to come off very well.

By the way, the latest batch of photos and videos are up on my photos page. Take a look, if you have lots of time handy! Alternatively, borrow the CD from my parents if you're in Reading...

The way I booked my ticket gave me only 5 days on the North Island - well, it would have had my flight to Tokyo not been at 8am necessitating another night in an airport! That said, sleeping in airports is quite an established activity for some people, evidently more masochistic than me.

So, with 3 and a half days to see the whole of the North Island, I headed straight out... to the hostel. Even I am not mad enough to try to see anything in 3 days, and so I've just stayed in Auckland and explored the city. My overall impression is that it's quite nice, full of Japanese people (businessmen and tourists) and really cheap! I have relished this $2 an hour internet café as the cheapest I am likely to find in the developed world. I also enjoyed buying apples for $0.99 a kilo, even if I did have to pay $2.40 each way on the bus to get to the supermarket! (If you think that's going out of the way, imagine my surprise to learn that the kiwi fruit on sale are Produce Of Italy.)

When I realised (before I got here) that my time was so limited, I had planned to spend two nights in a hostel here, one night in a hostel elsewhere and then the final night at the airport. The destination I chose was Waiheke Island, because it's only 45 minutes from downtown Auckland by ferry. I then saw the size of it, and decided that to spend a night there would be a little difficult (it has a hostel, but probably not enough to do...), so I modified my plan and went there for a day trip earlier on today. I think I made the right decision, as it's a very scenic spot with views of the ocean, other islands and peninsulas of the harbour as well as the towers of the city just visible. Walking around, as I often do, was enough exercise for me and saved the money for a tour bus!

Speaking of the towers of the city, Auckland proudly boasts The Tallest Building In The Southern Hemisphere! The Skytower is 328m high, and being in New Zealand, wouldn't be complete without a bungy jump. It seems that Kiwis are keen to throw themselves off anything, and being in a city won't stop them. (The Harbour Bridge also has a bungy jump for the more-money-than-sense crew.) I restrained myself to just going up the building, having a look out the window and going down again (in an elevator, I might add).

So, my time in New Zealand is at an end. I shall now go and find a fish-and-chips shop, pay an extortionate fare to ride the privatised bus to the airport which stops running at 8pm and attempt to occupy myself for 12 hours there. Hopefully I'll have better luck than last time in Melbourne, where the check-in desks were closed when I arrived, so I couldn't even go through to the lounge!

Tomorrow evening I will be back in the Northern Hemisphere, where the stars are the right way up and water goes down plugholes the correct way round. Of course, the downside is that nobody speaks English, everything is outrageously expensive and they don't even use our alphabet! So, 12 hours to learn Japanese... wish me luck!